


Worth It

by Joolz



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: April Showers Challenge, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2002-07-01
Updated: 2002-07-01
Packaged: 2017-10-17 13:29:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/177329
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joolz/pseuds/Joolz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone wants something from Jack, and they are willing to do anything to Daniel to get it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Worth It

**Author's Note:**

> Season 4 era

There was a horrible cacophonous noise blasting in his ears as Jack awoke, and his eyes flew open. It was dark, except for a faint greenish glow to one side. He didn’t know where he was. It was suddenly silent, then the racket began again.

Jack groaned pitifully. It was the telephone. The green glow was from the alarm clock on the bedside table, which read 01:13. That’s where the offending instrument was, too. Jack flung himself at the phone to stop it from blaring again, and pulled the handset to his chest while he collected a few functioning brain cells. Raising it to his ear he growled, “This had better be good.” SG1 had just gotten back from a five day mission, and he was supposed to be catching up on the deep sleep that was only possible earthside.

An unfamiliar man’s voice spoke brusquely, “Colonel O’Neill. Check your e-mail. We want you to understand that our demands are deadly serious.” The connection broke and a buzzing noise replaced it. Jack was wide awake now, the threatening tone activating his battle readiness.

He stared at the handset. “What the fuck?” Replacing it on its cradle, he threw off the covers and hauled himself out of bed. The casual trousers and shirt he’d worn home from the mountain yesterday were folded on the chair, so he grabbed them and pulled them on. As he aimed himself down the hall toward the living room, Jack mumbled to himself irritably, “What the fuck…what the F-ing fuck is it now?”

Flicking on the living room light, Jack headed straight to his computer and flipped the on switch. As he waited for it to warm up, he flopped into the chair and stared blankly at the wall. Zero one hundred hours in the morning. He’d only been asleep about three hours, and that most definitely was not enough. The ready-to-go tone sounded. He activated his e-mail program and waited patiently as it checked for new messages. There were four. Two from classical and jazz MP3 promotions, one from his aunt that said ‘Hi Jackie’ in the subject line, and one, without a sender, that said only ‘Open the attachment.’ With a brief prayer to the god of virus protection, he clicked the button.

It was a jpg file. After processing for a moment an image filled his monitor. The blood drained from his head and Jack was aware of a faint ringing in his ears. His stomach threatened to expel the hamburger he’d eaten on the way home, even though it had just turned to a block of cement. He sucked in an uneven breath and closed his eyes.

\--Okay, Jack. Clamp down on the emotion. It’s not needed or helpful at this time. Clear head. Calm and controlled.-- He breathed deeply, and opened his eyes again. Staring blindly at the screen, his hand reached for the phone on the desk, and dialed a number from memory.

//I’m sorry, the number you have reached is not in service at this time. If you believe that you have reached this number in error, please hang…//

He set the phone down and thought about making another call. No, he would go. He had to do this himself.

Jack returned to his room and mechanically pulled on his socks and boots, removed a handgun and shoulder holster from a drawer, and drew it on over his shirt. On the way out he grabbed his leather jacket to hide the gun.

The drive happened on auto-pilot. It was dark, the street lights were glaring in his eyes. Every car that passed was a potential threat. Then he was there. Jack pulled the truck into the no-parking space by the front entrance. He punched in the code number to unlock the door, and warily checked out the entry foyer. Nothing but tile, potted plants and florescent lighting. Luckily the elevator was waiting on the ground floor. He got in and pressed the number.

The elevator ride seemed to take longer than the entire drive over. Jack practiced his deep breathing exercises as the floors slipped slowly by. Just before the door opened, he drew his gun out and held it ready. The hallway was clear, it looked normal. He stuck close to the wall as he approached the door, and found it standing open by about a foot. He cautiously reached his arm around and felt for the light switch. Nothing happened when he flicked it.

Well, he was going to have to go in, so if they were waiting he was just screwed. Jack slid around the doorsill as quickly as possible, trying not to present a framed target with the light behind him. Standing against the wall, he let his eyes adjust to the dark interior. A pale glow from the street lights below faintly illuminated the living room through the balcony doors. Nothing was out of place, it all looked exactly like it had the last time he’d been here.

But it wasn’t like the last time. This was so not like the last time that it didn’t bear thinking about. Jack proceeded into the room, then up the short flight of steps to the bedroom door. It was closed, and he gingerly turned the knob. Not giving himself time to think any more, he silently swung the door inward and peered around the frame.

It was, of course, dark here too, but he could see a bit. And it wasn’t the scene on his computer. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, but it was a shock anyway. He inched forward, alert for any telltale sounds. There was definitely a shape on the bed. Jack moved around to the side, gun held steady on the figure before him, and clicked on the lamp.

It was Daniel, and there was no blood. The face that had been pressed deep into the pillow jerked up and turned toward him, eyes barely open slits.

“Jack? What are you…” His eyes opened wider as he noticed the gun pointing at him. “Jack?”

Jack looked at Daniel, and looked at his gun. The hand holding the gun was shaking, so he slipped the weapon into the holster.

Daniel pushed back the covers and slid his legs over the edge of the bed. He was wearing pajama bottoms, but no shirt. And there was no blood. As Daniel stared up at him, Jack took a step forward and knelt in front of his friend. He extended the trembling hand and touched the smooth, unbroken skin lightly.

“Jack! You’re scaring the hell out of me. You wanna tell me what’s going on?”

“Thought you were dead.” The words were low and tentative.

“Why? Why would you think that? I’m not dead, as you can clearly see.”

Jack didn’t answer, but reached out and pulled the younger man to him, tightening his arms into a fierce squeeze.

Startled, Daniel prompted again, “Jack!”

“Just a minute.”

As he assured himself that Daniel was indeed there, alive and in one piece, his brain got back into gear for the next steps. Steady now, he released his friend and stood. “You got your cell phone here?”

“Yeah. It’s on the dresser. Jack?”

“Get dressed.”

O’Neill found the phone. As he dialed, Daniel dug into the drawers beside him for clothes. Leaning against the dresser Jack listened to the phone ring. Once. Twice. Then a bleary voice answered, “Hello?”

“Carter. Is your house secure?”

A bit clearer, “Colonel?”

“Carter, you have a gun there, right?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I need you to get it and make sure your house is secure.”

“What’s going on, sir?”

Daniel had slipped out of his pajamas, and was pulling on his briefs while listening wide-eyed to one side of the conversation.

“Long story short, I got a phone call tonight that told me to check my e-mail. There was a picture. Before I tell you the next part, I’ll just say that I’m at Daniel’s now, and he’s standing in front of me, perfectly fine. The picture showed Daniel dead. Very dead. Bloody, gory, dead.”

Daniel froze, his hands in the middle of buttoning his jeans.

Jack heard a gasp through the phone. “He’s fine. It must have been a CGI or something, but someone has been here. The phone’s out and the door was standing open. Daniel, put your shirt on.”

The young man resumed dressing, his mouth hanging open in shock. He pulled on a light gray T-shirt, and a maroon and blue checked shirt, which he left unbuttoned.

“It was a message to me. The guy said I needed to know that their demands were serious. That’s all I know. I have to assume that if they’re using my team members to get to me then you’re in danger too, Carter. Lock down your house and don’t open to anyone. I’m calling the base to arrange for some SFs to go pick you up, I’ll make sure it’s someone you know.”

“Right, sir. What will you do?”

“I’m keeping Daniel with me, and we’re heading in to the mountain. Someone went to a lot of trouble to scare me shitless, and we need to find out who it is.”

“See you there, sir. Be careful.”

“You too, Carter.”

As Jack made his second phone call, Daniel silently entered the bathroom and came out ready to go.

Jack moved to the doorway, gun in hand, and motioned for Daniel to follow. “Stay close.”

As they descended the stairs into the dim living area, Daniel spoke. “Um, Jack?”

“Daniel?”

“You were really upset. I mean, when you thought I was dead.”

Jack turned to look at him. “You thought I wouldn’t be?”

“I wouldn’t have thought…. Well, not that much.”

Jack shook his head, the earlier shock and relief making him uncharacteristically effusive. “Danny, Danny, Danny. Funny ideas you have. You’re my best friend, you idiot. I may not get all hearts and flowers about it, but I would lose it completely if something happened to you. You gotta know that.”

Daniel’s head dipped as he tried to hide the smile spreading across his face. Jack reached out, grabbed a handful of Daniel’s hair, and shook his head lightly. “Come on, Jackson.”

They moved up to the door, and suddenly there was a dark form blocking the entrance. A dark form with a very big gun pointed right at Jack’s stomach. He took a step back and felt Daniel’s hands catch him on the arms. “Uh, Jack?”

“What is it now, Daniel? We’ve got company.”

“Uh, yes, we have.”

Jack glanced around quickly, and there were more silhouettes below them in the living room. They’d been in the apartment the whole time.

“Damn.”

The figure in the doorway spoke casually. “You might as well put the gun down, Colonel. It won’t do you much good anyway, especially seeing as it isn’t as loaded as you think it is.”

Jack thought about pulling the trigger on the guy just to find out, but since Daniel was mostly between him and the other assailants, he decided not to. He opened his fingers in a show of compliance, and set the gun on the floor.

“Good boy. Gentlemen?”

The others swarmed around the captured pair, and cuffed their hands behind them. The leader, whose face was still in shadow from the light in the hall, continued. “We’ll have some talking to do, but not just yet. How ‘bout you boys take a little nap for a while?”

Jack felt Daniel jerk into him as one of the men pressed something over his mouth. Just as he started to protest, someone slapped something wet and medicinal-smelling over his own mouth and nose. And that was all.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

One of the first things Daniel noticed was that he still had his glasses on. That was a surprise because usually in these kidnapping things his glasses were the first casualty. Of course, with his head bent they had slipped down on his nose, but if he tilted his head back he could still see through them well enough.

He was sitting in a heavy metal chair with his hands cuffed behind his back. Jack was sitting facing him, similarly bound. It looked like he was still out; his chin was resting on his chest and his long legs were splayed out loosely in front of him. There wasn’t much else to see in the room, just four white walls and a door. And a rope attached to a cleat on the wall with the other end hanging free from a pulley in the ceiling.

Daniel warily tested his bonds, and found them secured to the chair.

“Jack? Are you awake? Jack!”

His friend snorted suddenly, and his head came up. His dark eyes sharpened as he took in Daniel’s appearance and the rest of the setting.

“Has anyone been in?”

“Not while I’ve been awake, which isn’t very long.”

Jack rattled his chains and scowled. Then he did a double-take.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because my glasses have slid down, and I don’t exactly have a hand free to push them back up, now do I?”

“You look like a turtle with your nose in the air like that.”

Daniel couldn’t believe that Jack was making fun of him at a time like this. Grumbling irritably, Daniel decided to do something about it. He bent his knee up, braced his foot against the seat of his chair and leaned forward as far as his bound arms would allow. After a couple of tries, he succeeded in first pushing one lens up closer to his eye with his knee, then the other. When he finally let his leg drop again and sat back he was red in the face and breathing heavily from the exertion and contortion.

Then he looked at Jack. The older man’s head was forward again, like when he’d been unconscious, but now his whole body was shaking. He was laughing!

“Oh, right, Jack. You laugh now. Wait till you want to scratch your nose or something. Won’t be so funny then, will it?”

Jack quickly grew serious and looked at Daniel with a startled expression. “I really wish you hadn’t said that.”

“Ha!”

Then they both laughed.

Neither spoke again for a while. There didn’t seem to be anything to say. They could both see perfectly well the situation they were in. They both knew that these people wanted something from Jack and that Daniel was probably there to be used as motivation. They both knew that it was very likely that Jack wouldn’t be able to give them what they wanted, no matter the motivation. There was no point in talking about any of these things. It was damn nerve wracking sitting there in silence, though.

“So, Jack. What were you planning to do today.”

The other man raised an eyebrow at him. “Now, personally, I hadn’t thought any farther ahead than getting eight to ten hours of quality sleep time in. Oops, too late. How about you?”

“Oh, I had a big day planned. SG4 brought back a video of some writing they found on… a wall… that’s in… that language, you know… and the General wants me to translate it. It’s very simple text, and shouldn’t take long, really. It’s frustrating that they depend so much on me and … Mr. T… for translation. Not really a very good idea, is it, having all your eggs in one basket so to speak. Something could happen to us….” --Don’t go there.-- “Anyway, it would make sense if more teams could at least read… that… so they could tell if something was a shopping list or secret enemy battle plans before they got all excited and brought it back for me to do.”

“I thought Nyan was coming along well in… that.”

“He is. He’s just assigned full time to something that’s higher priority right now.”

“Maybe we should talk to the General about starting classes when we get back. I should probably learn to say more than Kree, myself.”

“Do you think we could do that? Nyan could fill in for me if I was off… on a mission. We could start with…” He let his planning mind take over and explore the new idea. Daniel was enormously grateful to Jack for humoring his rambling. It actually helped a lot to take his mind off the upcoming villainy, and he knew that Jack knew that.

Daniel hadn’t gotten very far in the syllabus when the room’s only door opened. A tall, stocky Caucasian man with a crew-cut and a rumpled suit strolled in, and Jack got the first word in by wisecracking, “Hey, do you mind? We were in the middle of a meeting, here.”

The man drawled sarcastically, “So sorry to interrupt. Are you boys comfortable?”

Jack carped, “I distinctly remember asking for a room with an ocean view. This one is nothing like the brochure.”

“Well, O’Neill, you get what you pay for, eh? Now, I’m gonna tell you boys what the deal is. You’re gonna give me what I want, and I’m gonna let you go. Otherwise, you’re both gonna get hurt.” He walked around behind Daniel’s chair and placed his hand on the seated man’s shoulder. “And one of you is gonna get hurt more than the other. That clear?”

Daniel interjected, “Excuse me, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced. I’m Daniel Jackson. What was your name again?”

The man ruffled Daniel’s hair and spoke to O’Neill. “Polite little geek, in’ he? Just so as you don’t feel at a disadvantage, you can call me Mister Freeman. To remind you what you ain’t.” He casually sauntered around to stand in front of Jack. “Now let’s get down to business.”

Jack sounded bored. “All right, Freebee, what do ya want?”

The man’s demeanor shifted, became more formal. “A couple of weeks ago, in the company of a former NID agent, you entered the private residence of a United States Senator. While there you came into possession of one computer disk containing the less than legal and ethical dealings of said Senator and his associates, to do with the Stargate Command. That information is now allowing you to, shall we say, limit the latitude with which the big man can act. My assignment is to procure that disk.”

“So that’s it. Who are you working for? The Senator himself? Anxious to get back to double-dealing the American people, is he? Or his business partners, who wouldn’t mind having a little blackmail material on the old boy themselves? Or maybe the competition, who could use the disk to bring Kinsey down? ”

“Good guesses. Could be none, could be all. That’s not really your concern here. Your focus needs to be a little narrower than that. Do you want to live? Do you want your boy to live? It’s a simple question. Will you give me the diskette?”

Daniel answered. “No.” Freeman turned to look at him. “That diskette is protecting something that’s more important than either one of us. He won’t give it to you, so you might as well forget it.”

Freeman turned back to O’Neill. “Can you speak for yourself, Colonel?”

“He said it just fine. The answer is no. Look, you’re not going to get what you want, so why don’t we just call it a day, and forget this whole thing ever happened?”

“Oh, I don’t think so. What I think is that before we’re done here you’re going to come around to my way of thinking.” He ambled slowly around behind Daniel again, and started massaging the muscles of the seated man’s shoulders, which Daniel didn’t find the slightest bit relaxing.

The man went on, leaning into the back of Daniel’s head, “I don’t want to have to hurt you. Hell, I like you boys. I like you boys a lot.” He dipped his head around to speak into Daniel’s face. “I’ve heard about how feisty you are, Doc. Standing up to all kind of scary alien things. I respect that.” He stood up straight and patted Daniel roughly on the shoulder. “I’d be happy to let you go get back to work, but you see I can’t do that unless I get what I came for.” He looked at Jack again. “And I honestly don’t think you’re gonna want to sit by and watch what I’ll do to him if you don’t give it to me.”

Jack’s eye’s and voice were steely. “Probably not, but I don’t have any choice. I’m an officer in the United States Air Force, and I’ve sworn to serve and protect the best interests of this country. I don’t think that’s you. Like Daniel said, there are more important things at stake than us.”

“More important than even your best bud, O’Neill? The one who, let me see if I get this quote right, you’d ‘completely lose it’ if something happened to him?” Pounding Daniel on the shoulder one last time, he moved to stand between them again.

“Now I’m being up front with you here. No hidden agendas at all. I get the disk, you walk. Otherwise, bad things happen. I’m not playing with your minds or anything, I mean everything I say. I think you boys need some convincing of just how serious I am, though.”

When Freeman turned, Daniel didn’t even see the fist coming. He was only aware of an incredible pain suddenly shooting into the center of his head. As he sucked in air in an attempt to clear his mind, he felt blood pouring over his lips. The bastard had broken his nose. He swallowed the blood running down the back of his throat, and opened his eyes to glare up at his attacker. Now his glasses were gone.

“Sorry about that Doc, just trying to get your attention.” Freeman walked over to Jack and squatted by his side so that they were both facing Daniel, and patted Jack’s thigh soothingly. Jack’s face was furious and frozen.

“There’s a lot more where that came from, O’Neill. Your little friend won’t see the light of day again unless you cooperate. Whaddaya say?”

“Bite me.”

“I think maybe you’re not empathizing enough. Maybe you forgot how much a broken nose hurts. Let me help you with that.”

As he stood, he swung into Jack’s face, and Daniel heard the bone snap. Jack sat with his eyes closed, controlling the pain, as their captor went on. “Your nose makes an easier target than his, dun’ it? Does it hurt now, O’Neill?” He tapped the swelling bridge of Jack’s nose with his finger. Jack gasped and cringed slightly, and Daniel knew that it had to hurt like hell.

Freeman crossed to him again. “But you’ve got a pretty little nose. Wouldn’t want it to heal funny and mess up the symmetry of that nice face, now would we? I’ll just fix that for you.”

Daniel tried to pull his head away, but the other man held him still and pinched the injured area. As the pain exploded through his head again, Daniel could feel bones grinding together. He couldn’t stop a moan of, “Oh, God!” from escaping.

Freeman stood back and admired his work, wiping blood from his hands with a handkerchief. “There. I’ve given you both something to think about. It’ll just go downhill from here, you can count on that. I’m gonna leave you two alone for a while so you can contemplate your options. Then I’ll be back and we’ll carry on.” On his way out of the room he stopped in front of Jack one more time and bent to speak into his face.

“You remember that picture we sent you? It wasn’t real, but it could be. Think of it as a prophesy of what will happen if you’re too stubborn. You aren’t a stubborn man, are you Colonel?”

Jack didn’t answer, and Freeman stood and continued through the door, shutting it behind him.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

The Airman who knocked on Teal’c’s door could only tell him that something had happened, and that the rest of SG1 and General Hammond were on their way to the base, and could he please meet them in the Conference Room. That was easily accomplished, as it took mere minutes to walk from his quarters to the meeting place. There he sat in his accustomed chair and waited unmoving for the others to arrive. General Hammond eventually strolled in looking as though it were nine in the morning rather than 03:00.

“Teal’c. Your teammates aren’t here yet?”

“No, General. May I ask what has transpired?”

“I’m not quite sure. I got a call from Security saying that Colonel O’Neill has received some kind of threat, and believes that Major Carter and Dr. Jackson may be in danger. I’ll get Security on the phone.”

As he started towards his office, Major Carter rushed in, stopped, and looked around. “Where are the Colonel and Daniel?”

“Good morning Major, at ease.”

“Sorry, sir. Sir? Where are they?”

“They haven’t arrived yet. Major, why don’t you fill us in on what’s happening.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know very much. Colonel O’Neill called and said that he’d received a threatening phone call, and a picture by e-mail. That picture showed that Daniel was dead.” Both Teal’c and the General started in surprise. “No, the picture wasn’t real. The Colonel went to Daniel’s apartment and he was fine. He called from there. He told me to wait for the SF’s. Sir, they should have been here long before me. They were coming straight to the base.”

The General frowned. “Try calling them.”

Samantha moved to the phone and started dialing.

Teal’c found the situation most unusual, and disconcerting, especially following so closely after his own separation from the others and torture at the hands of Heru’ur’s henchmen, and then the retirement of General Hammond and break-up of SG1. While he had been assured that this last was a temporary anomaly, his faith in the stability of the Stargate Command had been seriously shaken. Their entire effort and even their very lives were in the hands of unknown, faceless persons, ‘out there’ somewhere. He was reluctantly coming to understand that as capable and brave as his colleagues were, they were yet vulnerable to these unseen dangers. It was realistic, but it did not make Teal’c happy.

“General Hammond, do you know who might wish to harm DanielJackson or O’Neill?”

The other man sighed. “Teal’c, there’s a mighty long list.”

The Major rejoined them. “There’s no answer at the Colonel’s house, Daniel’s phone is out of service and his cell phone is switched off. Sir, we need to find them.”

“I agree. I’m going to call in extra security teams and have them check both their houses. I want them gone over with a fine-tooth comb checking not only for clues as to their whereabouts but also for surveillance devices and most especially any kind of booby traps, bombs or what have you. Major, I want you to go along to the Colonel’s house and see what you can find out about this e-mail and any phone calls that might have come in. I’ll get the local police to look out for their cars. Go.”

“Yes, sir.”

As his concerned teammate hurried on her way, Teal’c inquired, “General Hammond, what may I do?”

“Nothing for now, Teal’c. I’ll let you know. You can wait here.” Then he was gone as well.

Teal’c sat alone again in the conference room. The dis-ease of earlier had grown into alarm and ever-mounting frustration. On off-world missions his strength and knowledge were valued, he knew his place and his worth. But anything that had to do with the Tau’ri world excluded him completely. For all his studies, much of their society and politics remained a mystery to him. Others were more highly skilled in utilizing Earth technologies than he. He wasn’t even allowed to travel freely in order to familiarize himself with the immediate surrounding area.

He was, for all intents and purposes completely useless to his friends. It was… intolerable. It was also humiliating to someone of his experience and former status. And yet he was at a loss to suggest any course of action that he might take in this time of crisis. Teal’c sat, his anger hidden behind an impassive façade.

After some minutes General Hammond leaned through the doorway. “Teal’c, they’re setting up a communication center in Security. I’d like you to coordinate the off-base activities. Monitor all transmissions and report to me as soon as there’s any word.”

Teal’c leapt gracefully to his feet. “I shall attend to it immediately.” He bowed respectfully and strode quickly toward the hallway and the elevators. Perhaps he was good for more than guarding and shooting. Coordinate. Monitor. Report. He could do that.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Samantha waited outside until the security team motioned to her that it was okay to enter the Colonel’s house. A number of men moved about with sophisticated equipment and cameras, treating it as a top priority crime scene. She moved through the controlled bustle to the computer terminal. The screen was dark, but the power light was lit and the machine hummed softly. She touched the space bar, the low power standby switched off and the last thing the Colonel had been looking at came up.

She was prepared. She knew what to expect to see. Still it was a blow. Her heart started pounding and her mouth went dry. Just then one of the SF’s passed behind her, and stopped to stare.

“M..m..my god, Major. Is that Doctor Jackson?”

She took a deep breath and answered more calmly than she felt, “No. It isn’t Doctor Jackson. They wanted the Colonel to think that, but it isn’t.”

As the man moved away she felt a wave of compassion for O’Neill. When he saw this, he didn’t know it was a fake. It looked so real. More real than any nightmare. The Colonel must have freaked.

Not allowing herself to speculate about where they were or what kind of people might have them, she returned to her work. Since the e-mail program was already up, she forwarded a copy to herself at the base. Then she set about trying to backtrack the path that the message had taken to arrive there. She knew a few tricks, but the trail was purposefully obscured. A technician informed her that according to the phone company the call the Colonel received was made from a payphone near Daniel’s apartment. She hoped that the security system in his building would yield more than they seemed to be finding here.

Sam commandeered a radio and reported in. “SGC Home, this is Major Carter. Come in.”

“MajorCarter, it is I, Teal’c.”

She smiled at the gravity she heard in his voice even over the static-laden connection. “Teal’c, I’m afraid I haven’t found much of use. I can’t do any more here, so I’m heading back to the base.”

“MajorCarter, you will not travel alone.” It was a statement, not a question. She smiled again, thinking that Teal’c had been taking mother hen lessons from the Colonel.

“No, I’ll be careful. See you soon.”

“I look forward to it. SGC Home out.”

She was looking forward to it, too. Somehow with the other two missing she really needed the strong presence of her remaining teammate by her side. Together they would get them back.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Daniel stared at the door which had closed behind their captor, then looked at Jack, who was looking back at him calmly despite the blood stains on his face. Jack raised one eyebrow and asked, deadpan, “Does it ever seem to you, Daniel, that in fact everyone and their dog knows about what we do, and we’re the only ones who think it’s a secret?”

Daniel didn’t quite know how to respond to that. His nose was sending throbbing waves of pain through his eyes and head. He remained silent and shook his head slowly.

“How’s your nose?”

“Broken.”

“I kinda figured that. First time it’s been broken?”

“Yes.”

“It hurts like the dickens for a while, but it gets better.”

“Great.”

“Daniel…”

“It’s okay, Jack. I’m fine.”

“Right.”

“Right.”

“Look, Daniel, should we talk this thing through?”

“No need to. I remember what you told me. Let’s see, Torture and Interrogation Techniques 101. Isolate from familiar surroundings. Make sure the victim is aware that his fate is in the hands of his captor. Immobilize. Inflict non-lethal pain. Make threats regarding future damage to be inflicted. Sleep deprivation. When they fail to bring us a nice breakfast, add reduction of physical ability to resist by dehydration and hunger. Then we can expect accelerated production of pain as well as bargaining and offers of rewards for cooperation. They may separate us. I’m leaving out a few, but you know them already. Oh, and when that doesn’t work, they move on to the serious bodily harm.”

The soldier was eyeing him sadly. “You really were paying attention.”

“It’s important information. It helps me when I understand the theoretical basis for what’s happening. It doesn’t feel quite so personal that way.”

“Feels personal enough.”

“Jack. We can’t give it to them.”

Jack’s vision fixed itself on a point somewhere behind Daniel’s shoulder, and he said miserably, “We? I don’t hear him asking you for anything. He may be hurting you, but it’s me he’s putting the pressure on. It’s me who has to let this happen.”

“Jack, hello. I seem to be sitting here with you. We’re in this together, and I think I have a say. We can’t give it to them.”

His friend continued to inspect the wall silently.

“Do I have to remind you of why you needed to get that disk in the first place? Of how those people were threatening General Hammond’s granddaughters? Of how they replaced the General with a gung-ho no-brain idiot who destroyed a whole planet and almost destroyed the SGC? Of how they split us up? We can’t let that happen again. We can’t give in to extortion or terrorism.”

Jack looked at him now, and Daniel could feel the intensity of his gaze like a physical touch.

“Jack, don’t think too much. Don’t do half his work for him by worrying. Let’s just take this one step at a time and look for an opening.”

The gray haired man made a soft amused noise and shook his head. “Daniel, you amaze me. Aren’t I supposed to be the one bolstering you right about now?”

“Whatever works for us.”

Jack nodded. “It’s just that you’ve been through so much lately. The thing with Osiris, and the Unas, and the power plant thing, and the Enkaran thing, and other stuff. This…. I’m trying to figure out a way to get you out of this.”

“We’ve all been through a lot lately. We have.” He could see that Jack knew what he meant. He looked away again, and then back.

“I know we haven’t been as close as we were, and there are a lot of reasons for that. But I meant what I said. About you being my friend, and all. You know?”

Yes, there were a lot of reasons for the awkwardness that had grown between them lately. They had to do with both men’s characters and how they dealt with things, and Daniel held just as much responsibility for that as Jack did. Daniel knew that his responses to Jack were often based on his own insecurities, on second-guessing what he thought Jack might be thinking or feeling without asking him. And Jack had definitely been getting mixed ‘I need you/I don’t need you’ signals from Daniel for some time. Daniel could admit to himself that he’d been pushing Jack lately, especially around command issues, often more than he should.

He could see that Jack was struggling himself, trying to cope with the bizarre and frequently horrific things that they had been through. Not only did Jack have to deal with the crappy stuff that happened to him, but he also took personal responsibility for all the crappy stuff that happened to Daniel, Sam and Teal’c as well. As if that wasn’t hard enough, Daniel had to add to Jack’s turmoil by challenging him when working together might be more in order. While Jack was capable of an impressive measure of control and finesse, Daniel knew that he also had a sizable soft, human side and could react on impulse just like anyone else. Maybe, he thought, if he didn’t hold Jack to such an impossibly high standard there wouldn’t be so much discord between them. Daniel cringed inwardly as he thought of how often he judged Jack for what he saw as mistakes when the man was doing his best, which was actually pretty darn good. In fact, Daniel trusted Jack with his life, but how often did he say that? It wasn’t enough to just assume that Jack knew it.

For some reason, in this case understanding the theory behind what was happening didn’t help, didn’t allow him to keep an impersonal distance. And maybe it never really did. But in truth the relationship between Daniel and Jack was as personal as it gets.

Every time Daniel got near to admitting that the man sitting in front of him was the single most important person in his life, it scared him to death and he ran from it. It was like marking Jack as the next one to go, the one he would lose. That fear didn’t mean the feeling wasn’t there, though, and keeping his distance didn’t change anything. Having heard what Jack said, and seeing the look in his friend’s eyes right now, he knew the same was true for him. Underneath the layers of confusion, the bond between them was still strong. Daniel thought that it would probably be good for them to sit down and talk it through, get it all out in the open, clear the air, etc.

What he said was, “I know. And, um. Me too.”

The wry smile was back. “Good. Is the ‘Hallmark moment’ over now?”

“I certainly hope so.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Sam sat staring at her computer screen, trying to deconstruct the picture, to find out any clues she could from it. It was necessary to entirely tune out the content and concentrate on the form in order to get anywhere at all. She sighed in frustration.

Startled by a noise, Sam looked up to find Teal’c hovering in her doorway. Her first instinct was to turn the computer screen away so that Teal’c couldn’t see what was on it. Reluctantly she restrained herself. The Colonel had seen this, she had, as had General Hammond. It would be unfair to shield Teal’c as though he were an impressionable child; it was just that she knew how personally he took any harm that came to Daniel. Resigned, she straightened up and said, “Come on in Teal’c.”

The tall man moved around behind her to look at the image. Sam watched her friend carefully, but he displayed no outward reaction to the photo. After a moment he asked, “Have you discovered anything of use, MajorCarter?”

“Not really.” She faced the screen and began an explanation. “As we already suspected, this is a digitally created image. It appears to be at least three different photographs blended together, and then doctored some more. Obviously one photo is of Daniel’s bedroom. And I believe that the body is Daniel, too, even though any identifying marks have been, er, covered. Look at the slope of the shoulders, the line of the hips. That’s either Daniel or someone who looks an awful lot like him. The head and face are from another shot. Somehow they got pictures of him wearing only the sweatpants, and the interior of his place and put together the basic image. Then they overlaid the rope and the gory bits on top of that.” She looked at up. “I’m sorry, but I can’t find anything that helps us identify who did this or where Daniel and the Colonel might be. This kind of manipulation doesn’t require specialized equipment, just a bit of skill.”

Teal’c nodded. “While this is unfortunate, it is not entirely unexpected. The people responsible for this appear to be quite professional in their methods.”

“Have you found anything?”

“Very little. The investigative team at Colonel O’Neill’s house discovered some surveillance equipment, audio only, which is again not particularly specialized and difficult if not impossible to trace.

“They have found more interference at the apartment building of DanielJackson. His phone line had been cut at the central switchbox. His door was standing open, though it showed no signs of forced entry, and the light bulbs had been removed from the lighting fixtures. The security camera in the entryway shows the arrival of O’Neill’s truck at 01:52, him entering the building and proceeding to the elevator, and a few moments later his truck driving off. The camera was not at an angle to detect who moved the vehicle.

“The security cameras in the underground parking level were completely disabled. We can assume that O’Neill and DanielJackson were removed from the building through that area. The police are checking with neighbors and other structures in the area to see if anything was observed or recorded on their systems.

“The same type of surveillance equipment was found in the apartment, along with fingerprints from only the four of us. The forensics team is still there, but I believe that we can expect to find little of practical use. There has been no communication from the kidnappers regarding any ransom demands.”

Sam rubbed the heels of her hands into her tired eyes. “So basically we’ve got nothing.”

“We have only the assurance that both DanielJackson and Colonel O’Neill are quite likely held in high value by their abductors. A great deal of effort was made to lure the Colonel into the trap, and to remove them without apparent violence. They are both extremely resourceful individuals and may yet find a way to escape their captors.”

“Damn. So we’re waiting for them to save themselves. You know Teal’c, I would really have liked to ride in on a white horse and rescue them.”

Teal’c smiled, and Sam thought that he was probably imagining that scene literally. “I, too, would enjoy such an event.”

++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Freeman left them alone for another two hours or so, just enough time for them to become stiff and sleepy. Then he came in carrying a large mug of hot coffee, the odor of which filled the room instantly. He made a show of breathing in the steam, and commented, “Hits the spot after a long night, doesn’t it?”

Jack had to answer. “Barking up the wrong tree there, Freebase. This guy can get a caffeine hit off the smell alone.” He winked at Daniel.

The man’s half smile was ugly. “That’s good, Doc, ‘cause you’re gonna need all the energy you can get.” He turned to Jack, “Unless you’ve decided to skip the unpleasant part and go right to the capitulation part.”

Jack thought of a number of blistering retorts, but decided that it would probably annoy the guy more if he stayed silent.

“No? Okay then, don’t say I didn’t warn you.” He returned to the door and called two more thugs in from the next room. One of them stood in the center of the room underneath the hanging rope, and the other moved to where it was attached to the wall. He let it down far enough for the first man to get hold of it and have a length to work with. With everyone watching, he began to form it into a knot. A very specific kind of knot. A noose.

Freeman asked Jack casually, “You know where we’re going with this, don’t you? You saw the picture.”

Jack stayed quiet, but had to call on his deep breathing exercises again. This guy’s strategy was very effective, because Jack had seen the picture. At least Daniel had been spared that. Jack was scared for Daniel, and he was also scared that he wasn’t going to be able to let that happen to Daniel, no matter his duty. He brought pictures of Tessa and Caitlin to mind to strengthen his resolve.

The ox in a polo shirt finished his task, and tested the strength of the knot. There really wasn’t any doubt that it could fulfill its purpose.

Their captor set the cup on the floor and clapped his hands together. “Okay, Doctor Jackson. You ready to begin?”

Daniel sneered as well as he could without being able to wrinkle his nose, which had swollen noticeably. It was a decent attempt. Extra points awarded for degree of difficulty.

Freeman took some keys from his pocket and bent to unlock Daniel’s cuffs. One wrist band sprung open, but Daniel wasn’t given a chance to exercise his cramped muscles. The man held his wrist as he unwrapped the connecting links from the chair and immediately locked it back in place. The other two grabbed Daniel’s arms and hauled him to his feet.

Unsurprisingly, they pulled Daniel into the center of the room until he stood under the hanging rope. Freeman slipped the loop over his head and tightened it around his throat. Jack’s heart was beating furiously as he tried to think of how to stop this. He remembered Daniel’s exhortations not to give in, and managed to stay still.

One of the other men began to take the slack out of the rope, and eventually pulled it tight under Daniel’s chin. He pulled it a little more, so that Daniel’s neck was stretched to its limit, and he had to stand on tiptoes to breathe easily, then tied the rope off at the cleat. Daniel was balanced precariously between asphyxiation and muscle strain, but he appeared calm, at least outwardly.

Freeman dragged the chair Daniel had been seated in over to Jack, and sat next to him facing Daniel, who was now no more than three feet away. He clapped Jack on the back, then leaned against his shoulder.

“So, Jack. I can call you Jack, can’t I? How ‘bout I paint you a picture of how this is gonna go down? Hey,” he barked at one of the goons, “let’s have some skin here as a visual aid.”

The man approached Daniel and grabbed the blood spattered neck of his gray T-shirt and ripped. He tore the cloth down the front, and then pushed it and the plaid shirt off Daniel’s shoulders so that they fell to hang bunched up at his bound hands. The man stepped back and Jack and their tormentor had a clear view of Daniel’s bare chest and neck.

“That’s better. Oh, wait. We need a little more for accuracy.” Freemen sprang forward and began to unbutton Daniel’s jeans. Jack could see his friend’s face contort in dismay, even though he was struggling to breath. The younger man couldn’t move at all to defend himself without putting excessive pressure on his neck, and so had to take it without flinching. Only the first two buttons were undone, and the man pulled the edges back to expose Daniel’s soft lower belly.

Freeman turned to face Jack. “So, you remember the photo. I’m gonna explain to you exactly how that’s done, so you’ll know what to expect. First of all, I’ll make an incision here.” He touched his finger to the skin that had been hidden by the jeans. “You see, the trick is to cut through the skin and muscle and fat, though it doesn’t look like he has much of that, and through the lining of the abdominal cavity without going too deep and damaging the internal organs. It’s kind of like a surgeon opening you up for an operation. Then I’ll pull the knife upward until I reach the bottom of the sternum.” He traced a line over Daniel’s abdomen to demonstrate. “It’s actually pretty hard to get someone opened up just right without cutting stuff you don’t mean to just yet, but I got a pretty sharp knife special for the occasion.”

He moved back and sat next to Jack again, and continued companionably in a macabre, casual tone that froze Jack to the bone, while gesturing occasionally to Daniel. “Now, there’s lots of blood at this point, loads of it, but we’re not into the fatal stuff just yet. No, that comes a little later when I’ll pull the edges of the wound open and expose all that wiggly inner stuff. Then I’ll pick bits of it and pull it out, let it hang down. Your boy’s gonna be getting real shocky by now. Hurts like hell, that does. Actually, that part isn’t immediately fatal either. No, it’s more the blood loss that kills.”

The image the man was generating for Jack was spine chilling, but he went on in the same strange, friendly voice, “Just so you know I’m not totally heartless, I want you to notice that I’ve left him an out. See, any time he wants to end it fast, all he has to do is lift up his feet and let the rope do its work. Or when he passes out, then it’ll be over too. So the question will be how high a pain threshold your boy has, and how long he can stay conscious. I guess you’d know that better than I would, so you’ll have a good idea of how long this is all going to take. So whaddaya say, Jack? You up for this?”

Jack responded with icy calm. “What I say, Freefall, is that if you hurt him, what you just described will sound like a picnic at the beach compared to what I’ll do to you. You up for that?”

Freeman lifted his eyebrows dramatically. “Well, actually I take that threat quite seriously O’Neill. I’ve seen your files. Next to you I’m just a rank amateur when it come to torture, aren’t I? You’ve done it all.”

“I do not torture.”

“That’s not what I heard.” He addressed Daniel. “You know that, Doc? Your buddy here ever tell you about the people he cut and burned and raped? Had a real reputation as a hardcore interrogator who enjoyed his work. Old Colonel O’Neill of the SGC is a real softy compared to what he used to be like. Do you ever get a glimpse of the assassin anymore?”

Daniel managed a snort of laughter, and choked out, “Oh, like I’m going to take your word for it.”

“Hey, you don’t want to see the truth about your flyboy hero, no skin off my nose.” He turned back to Jack. “But I don’t think even you are in a position to make threats right now.” He leaned into Jack’s face. “I’ll say it again, you can both still walk away from this. That won’t be true much longer. I’ll give you something else to think about, too. When I’m done with the Doc, it won’t stop there. Not until I get what I came for. I’ll bring in somebody else. Maybe your pretty blonde Major. Maybe I’ll just snatch a kid off the street. Would that be fun for you to watch? The people who hired me for this assignment didn’t put any limits on how I could go about completing it. I can keep this up as long as I have to.”

Standing up, Freeman announced to the room in general, “Well, I think another short period of reflection is in order. Next time I come through that door, O’Neill, I’ll be bringing my knife. Come along, gentlemen.” He led the muscle out of the room.

There really wasn’t anything for Jack to look at except Daniel, standing right in front of him. After a minute Jack said, “Well, the bright side is that I’m finally getting a good look at your appendix scar.”

“Jaaack!”

“Sorry. Look, Daniel, what he said about me…”

“Forget it. He was lying.”

“He was actually. I just wanted you to know that I never…”

“I know Jack.”

“Because there are a lot of things from my past that I’ve never told you, can’t tell you, and some of it was bad, but I didn’t…”

“I know Jack. He was just trying to get to you.”

“Yeah. I just didn’t want you to think…”

“Jaaack!”

“Okay! Sorry. So how are you?”

“I’m really and truly very uncomfortable.”

“I know. He may leave you like that for a while, to tire you out.”

“Wonderful. All I can say is that I’m glad I went to the bathroom right before all this started.”

“And I can say that I wish I had.”

“Ooo, Jack. Sorry about that. Why don’t you try to get some sleep?”

“Right. I’m really gonna sleep while they’ve got you trussed up like…. Shit, I can’t think of any metaphors that wouldn’t be damned inappropriate right now.”

“We must be in trouble if you’re worried about being appropriate. Look, obviously there’s no way I can sleep, but you could. The better rested you are, the clearer your mind will be. Just close your eyes and try, okay? I’ll wake you up if I need you.”

Jack grumbled, but lowered his chin to his chest and shut his eyes. Sleep was a very long way off, but if it made Daniel feel better he’d pretend. Daniel was probably just not in a conversational mood. After a minute he heard the other man sigh and shift a bit, trying to find a way to relax a little. Jack thought, --I’m not leaving you alone, kid, not even if you say to. No fuckin’ way.--

He kept his eyes closed, remained still and quiet, and began to do some serious thinking.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Freeman left them to wait for several hours. After a while, Jack gave up pretending to sleep and dedicated himself to annoying Daniel enough to keep him awake. After getting rudely awakened in the middle of the night, being drugged and having his nose broken, being forced to stand in a position where he could neither move nor breathe comfortably was tiring Daniel out rapidly. Every time his body started to relax, the pressure on his throat brought him jerking awake with another shot of adrenaline.

Jack was respectably stiff and sore himself, but he knew it didn’t compare to what Daniel was going through. The best he could do was keep the younger man’s mind off it. He didn’t want to force Daniel to talk, so he took on the task himself.

“…and then the referee said to the Canuk player, ‘If your hockey stick comes even close to my face one more time, you are so out of the game…’”

“Jack! Stop, please. I’m going to be dropping into a coma here in a minute just to get away from the sound of your voice. I appreciate what you’re doing, but driving me insane will not help.”

“Fine, if you don’t want to be regaled with the finest hockey game ever played, it’s your loss. How about if I run through the libretto of La Bohéme?”

The other man considered this. “Well,” he replied tentatively, “that might actually be a good story.”

“Right. Ya see, there was this girl, and she…”

He was interrupted by the unwelcome return of their captor, and sure enough he was carrying a long, sharp knife with him. Jack shut up fast and tensed as if for battle.

The man walked right up to Daniel, and asked, “All right, O’Neill. Are we going ahead with this?” Jack was ready to jump out of his skin, but bit back any response.

Freeman wrapped one arm around Daniel’s waist to hold him steady, placed the knife to his lower belly, and pressed. Daniel began panting for air as blood gushed out around the blade and ran into the crotch of his pants. Holding the blade steady, just piercing Daniel’s body, the man turned to look at Jack.

“Okay, O’Neill, I want you to do something for me. I want you to visualize that diskette. What color is it? Black? Blue? I want you to see that little square of plastic floating in the air beside this man. I want you to ask yourself if that little piece of cheap shit is worth more than he is. Is it worth what’s about to happen here?”

Crunch time. Jack knew the answer to that question like he knew his own name. Of course, the answer was no. It was no.

He said, “No.”

Freeman’s eyes bore into his own. “What did you say, O’Neill?”

“I said no, it isn’t worth it. Let him go and I’ll give you the disk.”

Daniel gasped, “Jack!”

“Daniel, we’ll find another way to protect the SGC. There’ll be another way. You win, Freeload. Let him go and I’ll give it to you.”

The other man smiled at Jack in satisfaction. “You see, I was sure that we’d come to an agreement eventually.” He slowly withdrew the knife from Daniel’s flesh and stood. “Now comes the tricky part, where you get me the disk without doing anything stupid along the way.”

“What time is it?”

Freeman looked at his watch. “It’s two o’clock in the afternoon.”

“Okay, the disk is in a safe deposit box at the bank, which closes at three. I’ll go get it and bring it back here. No tricks. Now let him down.”

“Actually, I think you’ll be a little speedier if he stays like this while you’re gone.”

Jack leaned forward as far as he could and glared. “The only reason I’m doing this is to save his life. If I have reason to think that he won’t be alive when I get back, then there won’t be much point in me coming back at all. Certainly not with your merchandise. He can’t breathe through his nose and the rope is pressing on his throat. He can’t last much longer like that. Let him down or no deal.”

Freeman considered this. “How about we compromise?” He walked over to where the rope was tied off and released it. He let out enough slack so that the noose hung loosely at Daniel’s neck. He couldn’t sit, but he didn’t have to stretch to breathe, either. Daniel’s posture slumped in relief, and he closed his eyes.

“That’s the best you’re going to get. I’m keeping your boy right here in front of me. You suddenly get stupid, he still gets dead. Understood?”

“Perfectly.”

Freeman had the heavies come back in. They unbound Jack and pulled him to his feet. “Cyril will tag along with you, if you don’t mind.”

Jack looked at the goon. “Cyril?”

The beady eyes narrowed.

“Cyril. Lovely name. I’ll name one of… Daniel’s fish after you. Shall we go?” Jack stepped up to Daniel and rubbed his upper arms. “I’ll be back. You hang in there.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t use the ‘H’ word.”

Jack cringed. “You know what I mean.”

“I do, and I’ll be waiting.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Daniel was tired. He was hungry and thirsty and cold and so tired that he thought he couldn’t stand up for even one more minute. He couldn’t believe that it had only been a little more than 12 hours since this nightmare started, it seemed like days. The bleeding from the cut had stopped, but every drop of energy had drained out of his body, and any moment he was just going to melt into a sodden lump on the floor.

Of course he didn’t, and he would stand up for as long as he had to. But that was the total limit of what he could manage. His energy reserves definitely did not extend to firing up brain cells for thinking. He stood. Not leaning back, not leaning forward, not doing anything that would put more pressure on his aching throat.

Of course Freeman wasn’t content to leave him in peace. Oh no. He was sprawled in Jack’s chair, watching Daniel speculatively. His brain succeeded in generating one little burst of energy, and Daniel asked, “What?”

“Oh, I’m just trying to figure out what a man like O’Neill sees in you. I mean, he’s a man of action, like me, and you’re a bit bookish, aren’t you?”

“You think so?”

“Or is it more obvious than that, maybe your not unattractive physical attributes? O’Neill have a thing for pretty boys?”

“Jack and I are friends. You probably can’t understand that because you don’t have any friends yourself. You don’t, do you? You don’t care for anyone else. Don’t understand the concept.”

Freeman ignored him and continued as though Daniel hadn’t spoken. “Because that part of it I can see.” He stood and approached Daniel, looking him over appreciatively. Freeman slid his hand around to palm Daniel’s ass. “Mmm. Nice.”

“Excuse me, I thought we agreed that the torture part of this encounter had ended. And your hand on my body definitely counts as torture. Get it off.”

The man chuckled and lifted his hand away. “Don’t worry Doc. Your virtue is safe. That is unless your Colonel doesn’t come back soon. If he’s delayed at all, I think some com-pen-sa-tory pun-ish-ment will be in order. Ain’t that a surprise? Here I am hoping the guy doesn’t come through with the goods.”

Daniel turned a cold, hard stare into the other man’s face. “Back off.”

Freeman went back to his seat. “Don’t get your panties in a twist there, Doc. No harm in looking.” He resumed his study of Daniel, who closed his eyes and returned to energy conservation mode.

Daniel didn’t know what to hope for. He didn’t want Jack to come back, to hand himself over to these guys again, when there was absolutely no guarantee that they would keep their end of the deal. But if Jack got away and called for backup, then Daniel was probably dead meat. Anything that could knock him off his feet was fatal, and Freeman would probably have plenty of time to arrange for that. Knowing Jack, he would come walking back through that door any minute, but he would have a plan. Daniel reminded himself to follow his own advice and not worry, just wait to see what developed.

Daniel opened his eyes briefly as the seated man began to tap his watch significantly. Bastard. --Any time, Jack.--

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

They had allowed Jack to clean up before going out into the world, including relieving his bladder, which had improved his outlook considerably. Nevertheless, he was a man with a mission. He wasted no time going about his business at the bank and was soon on his way back to the warehouse in which his teammate was being kept. He wanted this over with, and now.

His delightful companion Cyril ushered him back into the white room in the center of the building, and Jack was relieved to find Daniel standing right where he’d left him. With a glance at Freeman Jack asked Daniel, “You all right?” Daniel just nodded, looking miserable. Hopefully, they’d be out of this soon.

Freeman stood, suddenly all business. “You got it, O’Neill?”

Jack pulled the diskette out of his jacket pocket and held it in the air. Freeman and his henchmen responded by drawing their guns and pointing them at Jack, who drawled, “Okaaay, play nice now.”

Freeman held out his hand, then motioned with his gun. “Give it to me, then move to the back of the room. I think some verification of content is in order here.”

Jack complied with his instructions, and Freeman went into the other room, leaving the door open. They could hear the taps and beeps which indicated the man was using a computer, then he stepped back in. Conspicuously placing the disk in the inside breast pocket of his suit coat, Freeman said, “Well done, O’Neill. Looks like just what the client ordered. That wasn’t so hard, was it? Now we’ll be leaving you, just like I promised. I am a man of my word, O’Neill.”

“Fuck you, Freeflow. Just go.”

“We’ll just get that rope for your friend here.” He nodded to one of the hoodlums, who stepped behind Freeman to the cleat.

Jack’s heart rate increased, and he took a step forward. “Leave it. I’ll get it.”

The guns pointing at him stopped him in his tracks. “Wouldn’t dream of it, O’Neill.”

The man untied the rope, then hauled down on it, lifting Daniel off the ground. Daniel began to struggle as Jack started toward the man with the rope. Freeman and his gun were in the way, so Jack detoured straight to his friend, bent slightly, wrapped his arms around Daniel’s thighs and lifted. “Daniel, don’t fight! I’ve got you. I’ve got you, Daniel!”

Daniel calmed down quickly, but panted for breath. Jack turned his head toward their captor, his cheek pressed to Daniel’s abdomen. “You son of a bitch! What the hell is this?”

“Just making sure you’re busy while we make our departure. Don’t want any last minute heroics on your part. Figuring out how to get your boy down from there should keep you occupied just long enough. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you fellas. Have a nice day, now.” With that the men filed out of the room, dragging the chairs with them, and shut the door.

“Daniel, are you okay?”

“’kay. Get me down.”

Jack’s arms and legs strained to hold the live weight pressing against his chest. “Daniel, you remember when Teal’c and I were floating around the solar system, and Carter said to trust her and eject into open space, no suit or anything?”

“Ah, yes?”

“Well, we did, and it worked out all right, didn’t it?”

“Yeah. Jack?”

“This is kind of like that, Daniel. You’re going to have to trust me, and do something you don’t want to do. I’m going to have to let go of you and go untie the rope. You’re going to have to hold on while I do that.”

“Uh, I don’t think so,” Daniel wheezed. “I just did the hanging by my neck thing, and it’s not good!”

“No choice. I can’t hold you like this forever, can I? I can’t reach the rope from here. No other option. You can do it, Daniel. I’ll let you down slowly, and you take a deep breath. Try to hold the weight with your neck muscles, and most importantly, don’t struggle, that just makes it worse. It’ll only take me a few seconds to get you down, but it might not be a controlled landing, if you know what I mean. You can do this.”

Daniel was panting with anxiety, but slowly his breathing became more controlled. “Okay, Jack. Do what you have to do.” He took several deep, shaky breaths. “I’m ready.”

“Remember, try to relax. Don’t thrash around.”

“R..right. No problem.”

“Okay, here we go. You’ll be all right.”

Jack bent his knees and slowly started to lower his precious burden, then stopped as he heard a sound from the other room. Voices. Familiar voices.

“Carter! In here! We’re in here!”

The door opened and Sam stepped in, gun following her line of sight. Teal’c was at her shoulder.

“Cut him down! Hurry up, the kid’s damn heavy.”

Sam’s eyes widened as she approached her teammates. Teal’c pulled a knife from the thigh of his trousers, and sped to the rope, slicing it in two with one stroke. The free end ran through the pulley at the ceiling and fell on top of Daniel and Jack.

Sam’s steadying hand at Daniel’s back, Jack lowered his friend’s feet to the ground, and they both continued their descent until they knelt facing each other. Daniel’s head fell forward onto Jack’s shoulder, as the older man briefly hugged him and started talking from sheer nerves and relief. “God, you did so good, Daniel, I can’t tell you. I’m so proud of you, Spacemonkey. Let me look at that.”

He released his hold and grabbed Daniel’s head, pushing it back so that he could see his throat. “Get that off him.”

Samantha held the loop part at Daniel’s neck, as Teal’c loosened the knot, then she lifted the cord over his head. Jack tilted Daniel’s head back farther and inspected the bruising. “You’re gonna be okay, Daniel.”

Still slightly shaky himself, Daniel nodded stiffly, “Yeah. I’m okay. We’re okay. Can we go now?”

Jack ruffled his hair. “You bet, Danny-boy.”

Sam dug at the lock of Daniel’s handcuffs with a small tool, and they clicked open. Behind her, Teal’c stood speaking into his radio. “Captain Reyes. You may now proceed into the building. Colonel O’Neill and DanielJackson have been secured. There has been no sign of the enemy, but maintain full precautions.”

//Roger that, Teal’c. We’re moving in now.//

Jack glared at Carter, “Hey, I told you not to bring the SWAT team.”

She answered calmly, “The SF team waited outside, out of sight. After we saw the others leave, Teal’c and I came in to investigate. There are an awful lot of people that are going to be glad to see that you’re both all right, sir. There’s an ambulance waiting, too.”

Daniel looked at Jack in confusion. He explained, “There was a customer courtesy phone in the room where you open your safe deposit boxes. They wouldn’t let Cyril go in with me. I called Carter from there. Come on, your carriage awaits.”

Teal’c and Carter helped the two men climb to their feet, and subtly supported them as they walked to the exit. Jack and Daniel didn’t let go of each other once.

+++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Doctor Fraiser used the broken nose as an excuse to keep the Colonel in the infirmary overnight, so after Daniel had been examined, stitched, bandaged, fed, watered, and injected, he found Jack lounging in the bed next to his. They both had white adhesive tape strapped across their noses, and dark stains around their eyes. “We must look pretty funny.”

Jack raised his eyebrows in indignation. “Absolutely not! Broken noses and black eyes are especially manly types of injuries to have. People will think we’ve been in a bar fight.”

“Great, so which restaurant are we banned from now?”

“You should see the other guy.” Jack’s laughter died suddenly and Daniel looked away. The other guy had gotten away with everything he wanted.

“Look, Daniel, about what happened…”

“Don’t worry about it, Jack. You made a decision. I’m not going to second guess you.”

Jack blinked at him. “Uh, thanks.” He sounded surprised. Jack’s expression was thoughtful. “I appreciate that. I really do. But I think I want to explain anyway. You should know why I did what I did.” Daniel nodded in acceptance, and Jack continued. “Like I said, I swore to protect the best interests of the SGC and the country, hell, the world at this point. I think that that’s what I did. Freeman’s little visualization exercise was actually very helpful. I saw you, and I saw the disk, and I asked myself which one was more important to the safety and future of the SGC and the world. That was a no-brainer, Daniel. You are. You are irreplaceable. If I had let him kill you in order to protect a computer disk, I would have been failing my oath. There may come a time when one or both of us will have to make that kind of sacrifice, but this wasn’t it. I didn’t like giving in to that creep, especially after what he did to you, and maybe it’s all just a rationalization to excuse my doing what I wanted to, but I really think that big picture, I made the right call.”

Daniel sighed. That was really nice to hear, but…. “I can’t honestly say that I’m not glad to still be alive, but they have the disk now, and we don’t even know who they are.”

“No, we don’t. Personally, I don’t think it was Kinsey himself. They had to know that we have more than one copy of the diskette, but that Freeman guy didn’t even mention it. I think it’s someone who wants to use it against Kinsey. At least I hope so. We may never know. And to tell the truth, they may not actually have the disk. Actually. Maybe.”

“What do you mean?”

“See, Carter had embedded this little program in the diskette, just for this type of thing. It’s a security feature where if a password isn’t entered every time the disk is accessed, it scrambles the information. You can open it once, but if you don’t type in the right thing the next time you open it, there’ll only be garbage. Now, if he saved it to a hard drive or emailed the files that first time, then they’ve got it. If he didn’t, then they probably haven’t got it. If he’d tried to open it a second time right then, we probably would have gotten it. Get it?”

A slow smile crept across Daniel’s face. “You sly dog, you.”

Jack looked pleased with himself. “Hey, it pays to think devious. It was a risk, but worth it.”

They were grinning at each other when Sam and Teal’c came in. Sam looked at the two of them in surprise, but said, “We’re under orders to go get some rest, but we wanted to see how you were first.” There was a smile trying to creep out the corners of her mouth.

Jack answered, “Oh, we’re just peachy, Carter. Gonna get a little shuteye, and have breakfast in bed I think.”

Daniel was curious about her expression. “Sam, what’s so funny.”

“Oh, nothing. Uh…”

Teal’c spoke. “There is a nocturnal animal on Chulak which has a white nose and dark circles around it’s eyes like a mask, called a ki’pur.”

Sam nodded, “Sort of similar to a raccoon, huh?”

“Indeed.”

Jack blustered, “What? Are you saying we look like kippers?”

“Or raccoons?” Daniel added.

“Oh, no, Daniel. Nothing like that. Not any similarity at all. Right Teal’c?”

The large man just looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

She jabbed him with her elbow. “Right, Teal’c?”

“No,” he said slowly, “Not a great deal of similarity.”

Jack waved a hand at them. “Right, if that’s settled then we won’t keep you kids from your beauty sleep. Bye bye.”

Sam’s smile softened as she moved closer to Daniel. She placed her hand on his arm and said gently, “However you look, it’s good to have you back.” She glanced at Jack. “Both of you.”

Daniel knew that it had to have been a difficult day for them as well. “Thanks, Sam. And thanks for the timely rescue, too. Both of you.”

Jack nodded his agreement. “Have a good rest.”

Teal’c intoned, “Tonight I believe that we shall do so.”

+++++++++++++++++++++

 

It had been a rough year. So much bad shit had gone down, and it seemed like it never was going to end. Now they were back from an enforced three week vacation in an abandoned Goa’uld palace by the sea, and there were pieces to pick up.

Almost losing Danny again so soon had been a shock to Jack’s system, especially the almost-jumping-off-the-balcony part. Jack knew that Daniel had that kind of despair in him. Who didn’t? Jack was honest enough with himself to recognize just how close to the surface his own despondent tendencies were. Daniel had very valid reasons for being depressed, not the least of which were the result of Shau’ri’s son happening to float in, shove Daniel’s dark side down his throat, and float back out again. But regardless of that, Jack didn’t believe that left on his own Daniel would ever consider ending his life. He fought too hard to keep it. All Jack had to do was think of the determination of that man who stood hour after hour with a noose around his neck to know that Daniel would never give up.

Nevertheless, the time in the palace had gotten a little intense. Jack and Daniel had actually talked about loss and how to cope with it. Even Daniel, the most reticent linguist in the world when it came to talking about himself, managed to choke out a few profound thoughts. All things considered, Jack thought that the two of them were doing pretty darn well.

Carter was a less happy bunny. She’d nearly gone crazy stuck on a planet with Jack and Daniel doing a bonding thing, without having anything much with which to occupy herself. She had been so glad to be reunited with her electron microscope that he’d almost suggested they get a room.

And Teal’c, he had hated being separated from the rest of the team again. Really hated it. It had happened too often. And what had Jack done? The minute they found out what the deal was with the light, he had sent Teal’c home. Brilliant. He should have found a way to keep him there, even if he was immune. At least that way he and Carter could have played together. That General Hammond kept Teal’c busy going out with other teams had only helped a little bit. It just reinforced his feelings of ‘separate’, ‘different’, ‘other’.

No, in general SG1 was in little pieces, and needed gluing back together. That was what tonight was about, starting the reintegration process. Jack had invited (read ‘ordered’) them to go out to dinner together at Antonio’s, the swanky Italian place downtown. They were just going to hang out together for the evening, wearing real-people clothes, and drink red wine till they mellowed. Jack thought it a stellar plan.

It hadn’t gotten off to such a great start, though. Jack had been delayed at the mountain, and had left Daniel standing on the curb in front of his building for twenty minutes before arriving to pick him up. Not a happy camper. They were almost to the restaurant now, but they were LATE. Carter and Teal’c were undoubtedly there already and starting to get annoyed as well.

Jack glanced at the man in the seat next to him. Daniel was fiddling with the radio trying to find something that they both could listen to, as though that were possible.

“Oh for crying out loud, would you stop messing around with my equipment?”

Daniel snapped the radio off and pulled his hands away dramatically. “Whoa! Listen to Colonel Pissy!”

Great, now they were going to argue. Perfect. Jack pulled into the parking lot and found a space at the side of the building. “I’m just saying. What’s the point of screwing up my radio settings when we’re already here?”

“So you weren’t planning to give me a ride home? Was I supposed to walk?”

Jack opened his door and stepped out into the dark parking lot. “Of course I’m going to drive you home. Geez, already. If you want to…”

Suddenly he was on the ground. The pain blossoming in the right side of his head announced that something bad had happened to it. Jack had every intention of jumping up and finding out what that was, but his limbs wouldn’t move.

He felt hands grabbing and lifting him, dragging him somewhere. His mind slowly processed the information his eyes were sending it. At least four men, two of whom had a hold of Daniel. They were being pulled into the alley at the back of the building. --Very bad. Gotta do something about this.-- Still his limbs felt like wet noodles.

Jack’s body was slammed against a large metal garbage bin, and hands bent him at the waist and pushed his head down onto the lid. With his face turned to the left, he could vaguely see three figures, the middle one pretty much Daniel shaped. The right side of his face was pressed against the cold, metal surface, but there was something hot and wet as well. Blood maybe. –-Wonder where that came from?--

It was strange. He heard a voice speaking, and it sounded like it was coming from very far away. But at the same time, he could feel hot breath on his cheek. “Surprised to see me O’Neill?”

\--Who?--

“You thought maybe you got away with that little trick you pulled on me? No-o-o-o, siree. See, I had a real hard time convincing my client not to kill me when that diskette contained nothing but SHIT. They decided to be real generous and let me try again. This time, it all happens my way.”

\--Freeman?-- Still, Jack’s mind was having a hard time putting it together.

The distant voice went on. “I’m real angry at you, O’Neill, and you’re gonna pay, and pay big. First of all, I’m gonna fuck you. I’m gonna fuck you hard and it’s gonna hurt like hell. Then I’m gonna fuck your pretty boy. And that’s just your punishment. Non-negotiable. Then I’m gonna ask you real nice for that disk. If you don’t give it to me, I’m gonna kill the Doc. Fast and simple and dead. Then we’ll talk some more, you and me. You getting this?”

Jack’s lips moved. He thought maybe he made a garbled ‘fuck you’ noise, but couldn’t be sure.

He felt a hand in his hair. It pulled his head up and slammed it down hard. The pain magnified to blinding proportions. He couldn’t see, he couldn’t hear anything but a muffled echo. His awareness contracted to the physical sensation of the cold metal under his cheek. That felt real. Something pressing against his butt, maybe a hand at his belt. Jack blinked and some light returned to his vision. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t quite figure out what was happening.

The three figures in front of him began to take shape once more. There was a sudden movement from the center one, and the one on the left went down. Another sudden movement, and the one on the right went down. The center one flew out of his line of sight. That fact had hardly registered when Jack’s line of sight changed dramatically. He found himself looking up at the sky. There was the glare from a streetlight, a sliver of moon, some gray, wispy clouds.

Then nothing.

Then a pale face topped by a mop of bright blonde hair. Whoa! Too bright! He knew that face. Carter. Her lips were moving. Her hand touched his neck.

Then nothing.

Then a light flashed first in one eye, then the other. Behind the light was another face, a man with a white shirt. Where was that wind coming from? The sound of wind rushing in his ears, in his head, was deafening.

Then nothing.

A jarring movement. Jack opened his eyes and saw to one side a very Daniel shaped person. He was talking to a man in a dark blue uniform holding a note pad. Daniel was shaking his head and motioning toward Jack. –-Hi, Danny!-- Whoa! Danny was getting smaller! No, Jack was moving. They shoved him into a small, dark space. Then Daniel was beside him. There was more shaking. Motion. Daniel was talking to him, and he could hear a vague, distant murmur. Then a loud echo: ‘con-con-cus-cus-sion-sion’. –-Keep it down, Danny.-- ‘Hos-hos-pit-pit’…. Whatever. Things got dark again, but he could feel a hand on his forehead. That felt real.

Then nothing.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

The three of them had been taking turns sitting at Jack’s bedside. Though it had been touch and go at first, Doctor Fraiser said that he was definitely getting better. She was so confident that she had removed the life support equipment last night, and Jack’s vital signs had continued to improve. It was just a matter of time before he would open his eyes and be there.

Daniel was slouched down in a chair, with a book resting on his chest. He was looking over the top of the book, though, studying the still face. The nurses came in and shaved him every morning, so apart from the thick bandage strapped to the side of his head Jack looked normal. It shook him up, though, to see Jack, of all people, so still. Incapacitated. Motion was almost the definition of Jack’s being, so who was this?

Daniel turned his eyes back to the white page with meaningless black markings on it. In order for them to make sense, you had to focus on them and let the brain form them into words. Daniel’s brain, however, kept wandering through various memories, thoughts, images; provoked perhaps by the setting. He had far too many vivid recollections of this place, most of them involving Jack sitting by his side. Daniel appreciated how really not fun that was.

Glancing over the top of the book again, Daniel’s eyes found a pair of brown ones regarding him calmly.

“Jack.”

The other man’s mouth moved, and his voice croaked, “Daniel.”

He carried a glass of water and straw to Jack’s parched lips, then set it down again.

“How you doing?”

The brown eyes were still fixed on Daniel’s face. “Never better. You all right?”

“I am now. You’re to rest and recover and not worry about anything, Jack.”

“No worries.” Jack’s eyes closed again as Daniel sighed with relief, and trailed his fingers across Jack’s forehead. Another crisis, another close call, but they’d beaten the odds again.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Daniel had his face buried in the book the next day when he heard Jack shift position and found his friend awake.

“Whatcha readin’, Danny?”

“Elie Wiesel’s autobiography.”

“I thought we talked about not dwelling on depressing things.”

“But Jack, no matter what he experienced in his life, he never gave up hope. He never gave up his search for meaning and understanding. This isn’t depressing, it’s inspiring.”

The brown eyes gleamed as they observed Daniel, and the lips almost twitched into a smile. “I guess it is at that.”

Daniel closed the book and set it on the table beside the bed. Leaning forward, Daniel rested his forearms on the railing, and his chin on his arms. “I haven’t been able to concentrate on the book, though, because I’ve been worried about you.”

The expressive eyes dulled a bit. “How long?”

“You were out for three days. You have a severe concussion.” And intracranial swelling. And possible brain damage. The works. “A lead pipe upside the head will do that.”

“So that’s what happened. I don’t remember very much of it. It’s kind of blurry.” The eyes brightened mischievously, and now the smile was definite. “But I do have this vague recollection of something to do with a certain archaeologist decking two big bruisers.”

Daniel blushed and glanced away. “Um, well. Decked would be too strong a word. Let’s just say that I threw them off balance momentarily, and made enough noise to attract some attention.” There was no way on Earth that he was going to tell Jack about the frenzied, almost berserker reaction he had had to Freeman’s threat to Jack, about how without even thinking he had most definitely ‘decked’ his two captors, if only briefly, and tackled Freeman. He certainly wasn’t going to mention the bruised ribs he’d ended up with as a result. And if Jack didn’t remember him bellowing like a bull moose, then Daniel wasn’t going to remind him. “Some people came around to see what was going on, and Freemen and his thugs ran off. We called an ambulance, and that was that.” He also wasn’t going to explain about how he totally blew off the police officer who was trying to find out what had happened, just because he absolutely had to be in the ambulance with Jack. “The good news is that they caught them.”

“Who?”

“Someone got the license number of the van Freeman used to get away in, and the police actually picked them up. I haven’t heard if they found out anything from that creep yet. Teal’c is in charge of the interrogation.”

Jack grinned again. “Serves the sucker right.”

“No question, ” Daniel agreed.

Jack sighed and rubbed his face sleepily. “So it’s all over, then.”

“We hope so. The General and Sam are working on a way to make sure that it isn’t you responsible for guarding the diskette any more, and getting the word out. No point in anyone going after you again.”

“Sweet.”

“You have some recovering to do, but as soon as Janet lets you out of here, you have another date with your team. We’re going to take you out for a massive Italian dinner.”

“Antonio’s?”

Daniel blushed again. “Uh, maybe not.”

“Crap. Don’t tell me we’ve been banned from there, too?”

“Not banned, no. But I just think it would be better if we went somewhere where our visit hasn’t resulted in a police report.”

“We’re gonna run out of options.” Jack’s eyelids were drooping. “Hey, Danny, I’m just gonna…”

“Yeah, you sleep. I’ll be here.”

“Thanks.”

As Jack drifted off, Daniel returned to his book. ‘What is a friend? More than a brother, more than a father: a traveling companion with whom we rebuild the route and strive to conquer the impossible even if only to sacrifice it later. What is a friend? The person who first makes you aware of your own solitude and his, and helps you escape it so that you, in turn, may help him.’

Daniel lowered the book and scrutinized Jack’s face. The stillness would turn to action again soon, and they would return to their search for meaning and answers. Maybe they would even find some.

Sometimes the two of them let the distance between them grow, no more the fault of one than the other, and they had to rebuild the route. Jack had been taking a lot of steps back toward Daniel recently, and Daniel wanted to meet him half way. They would help each other. Whatever happened, having a traveling companion to walk the path with made it all worthwhile.

 

End


End file.
